Location: Bourayne Bay, Huahine
Today was a good day. I woke everyone up at 6:45 am, and we all had an amazing pancake breakfast courtesy of Tim and Maddie. After quickly packing lunch, we were on our way to shore for a bike tour of the northern island of Huahine. The bike tour involved multiple stops, including archeological sites, breathtaking vantage points, and ice cream breaks. Overall, the tour was quite challenging. Most of us found ourselves walking our bikes up some of those super steep hills.
We met many interesting people, including the owner of the ice cream stand, an American lady who has lived in French Polynesia since 1979, and who also happened to be a talented artist with her boutique on the island. We climbed up trees over turquoise lagoons, biked through tens of miles of lush jungle and drank huge quantities of water, sweated it back out, laughed, and felt alive. We arrived back at Argo by sunset, had a delicious chicken curry dinner, and played a game of “Never Have I Ever.” What followed was a very interesting Marine Biology class on the Basics of Molecular Biology.
I’m sure there will be many to top it, but today was my favorite day so far. Living and learning aboard Argo has been both a gift and a challenge. Traveling around these different places has been a blessing, but today, I was extra glad that we got to experience them first hand. Even more excited for tomorrow for our first full day ashore before we set sail for Raiatea to pick up the 66-day folks.
Quoting Frank at the top of one of the steepest hills of our ride: “This is what I signed up for with Seamester.” And yeah, Frank, I couldn’t agree more.
P.S. Love you mom and dad, polla filakia!
Pictured: biking, James, Ruby, and Maddie on one of the viewpoints, more biking, the art boutique, Frank jumping off the palm tree he just climbed, lush tropical jungle, Tim as he dropped us off this morning, more views of the palm tree climbing, Frank at one of the mareas (historical sites for ceremonies and celebrations), sacred blue-eyed freshwater eels that we got to feed, Frank and his taro ice cream; James and Frank after conquering the largest hill; a small bit of the trash and plastic that we collected at the beach; Maddie and Ruby with their trash; the wild and gorgeous beach; Ryan, Garrison, and Frank at a marea; ruby enjoying the bay views after the bike ride; water break; some of the friendly people in Huahine; group photos from our adventures.